LOS ANGELES – Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond: very, very good. Jodie Meeks and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: better, good enough to win with on a night the big guys dominated. Everybody else: Hey, the weather out here is great!
All those guys not named Monroe, Drummond, Meeks or Caldwell-Pope combined to shoot 6 of 34 overall and a positively frightening 1 of 17 from the 3-point line. And still the Pistons got to the final minute with a chance to win, trailing the Lakers by just three points with 1:09 left when Monroe went to the foul line and missed two shots, paying doubly for it 19 seconds later when Jordan Hill drained a 20-foot jump shot.
That’s the margin for error Monroe and Drummond have these days: none.
“Right now, all we’ve got on any kind of consistent basis is our big guys,” Stan Van Gundy said after Monroe scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Drummond put up 14 points and 21 boards. “Particularly Greg.”
The 93-85 loss to the Lakers was Detroit’s seventh straight, leaving their fleeting playoff hopes barely flickering, and the common theme in the 2-7 record since the All-Star break – and the trades that Van Gundy staunchly believes bolster the future – has been sputtering offense and frigid shooting.
“We literally could not make a shot,” Van Gundy said. “I mean, just couldn’t make a shot. I thought our defense in the second half and our rebounding was a lot better, but that’s what I said to ’em in (the locker room): ‘At some point, it comes down to, you have to put the ball in the basket.’ ”
“It was tough,” said Monroe, who hit 10 of 14, combining with Drummond to make 17 of 25 on a night the rest of the team made 15 shots in 58 attempts. “We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. It’s just a little frustrating. I still believe we had some open looks. I don’t think anybody is taking bad shots. I think we had good looks tonight again. We just have to knock ’em in.”
Nobody struggled more than Reggie Jackson. He missed a few early shots, then picked up two fouls and nothing went right after that. Jackson was yanked early in the third quarter with the Pistons in an epic swoon – they went the first 10 possessions, more than six minutes, without scoring – and finished the night with two points on 1 of 9 shooting, three assists and five turnovers.
“Just missed a lot of easy baskets,” he said. “Probably had about three, four layup attempts and I know a couple of floaters I missed. Just couldn’t find the bottom of the net. Collectively, I feel like we got a lot of great shots – shots weren’t falling. Just continue to try to find the right shot and hopefully we get a groove.”
Veteran John Lucas III spotted Jackson in the first half after he got tagged with his second foul and missed all three of his shots, two from the 3-point line. Spencer Dinwiddie, playing 20 miles from home against the team he grew up idolizing, got a crack and had some nice assists early but also couldn’t find the basket, finishing 1 of 6.
“Our point-guard play, I mean, the three of them went 2 for 18, 0 for 9 from three,” Van Gundy said. “It just makes it very, very hard to win. We’re shooting barely over 20 percent from three in the last four games. (Anthony) Tolliver’s struggling. He’s now 2 for 18 in those games. It’s hard. Nobody can put the ball in the basket.”
Van Gundy talked after the morning shootaround that Jackson, aside from a rough game against the Knicks, had played well in his first seven games. But he was without explanation for his Tuesday performance.
“He didn’t look good at any point tonight,” Van Gundy said. “He just wasn’t in the game. Then he started forcing things. Seems to me he was predetermining what he was going to do. He didn’t play with any instinct whatsoever. Just a really, really rough night for him.”
Monroe and Drummond only managed seven fourth-quarter shots out of 25 Pistons attempts, in large measure because the Lakers were determined to make somebody else – anybody else – beat them.
“I think that’s why we got some good looks,” Monroe said. “I think everybody did a good job, whoever got into the paint, did a good job of kicking I tout. I think guys were conscious of them packing the paint. That’s why we were able to get so many open looks.”
For all the good it did them.
“It was brutal – absolutely brutal,” Van Gundy said. “And I feel for ’em a little bit. Again, I thought they fought hard. They just can’t get the ball in the basket right now.”